Just the guy to put in charge of millions of public dollars
The Chronicle runs a long profile of Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade today. Slade recently came under fire when significant expenses related to her private residence were improperly charged to Texas Southern.
Matthew Tresaugue's profile contains this interesting tidbit:
[Slade's] personnel decisions are under scrutiny after the regents placed the university's chief financial officer, Quintin Wiggins, on paid leave earlier this month, pending the completion of the investigation.
Wiggins, 45, was in charge of the university's day-to-day business affairs despite a criminal record that includes nine convictions for writing worthless checks from 1984 to 1993 and a three-day jail sentence for impersonating a public servant in 1988.
"Those are the kinds of cases that raise questions, even if they don't seem that serious," said David Diaz, a regent and TSU-trained attorney from Corpus Christi.
Diaz also said Wiggins should have been more vigilant before paying Slade's $138,159 home-landscaping bill with university funds. Slade said she hired a landscaping company that does frequent work on campus, and it inadvertently sent the bill to TSU. She reimbursed the university after regents questioned the expenditure.
Wiggins, who declined an interview request, told regents he did not realize the bill was for Slade's private property.
"I don't think you should sign a check just because it's put in front of you," Diaz said. "As CFO, he needs to be more discriminating."
Wiggins wasn't giving financial advice to the Mayor Pro Tem's office on the side, was he?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/19/06 10:47 PM | Print |
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.